Take a serious look at how STO runs their servers. They have the look and feel of one megaserver, but it is actually divided into "zones" that automatically pop up depending on population. Also, the account name and the character name are not the same - so that would solve the naming issues.

Also, look into IBM's "gameframe" product and see if that could be more cost effective than having all these servers.

Take a serious look at how STO runs their servers. They have the look and feel of one megaserver, but it is actually divided into "zones" that automatically pop up depending on population. Also, the account name and the character name are not the same - so that would solve the naming issues.

 

Also, look into IBM's "gameframe" product and see if that could be more cost effective than having all these servers.

I played STO and that was one feature I hated. I played with a friend and everytime we had to figure out if we were in the same zone. It was a headache for me and that is not something I would like here. It would give guilds and friends headaches to have to find out the zone each of them are in and try to get into the same zone.

I absolutely agree. In fact, I do not want to go through a server merge from what I have heard. Whoever is moved would be like starting all over. Who wants to go through that... lose your characters' names, your stronghold decorating reset as though never done, your outfit designer emptied of your carefully and expensively designed outfits, and everything else that could go wrong. What about credits, command tokens, etc. If all my stronghold decorating and outfits and names were gone, I'd probably get disgusted and just quit. Personally I do not want to be on a crowded server anyway, especially with the lag my internet has. All the populations increase for special events so add more special events if that is what you want., and more story content. Waiting for more story and the new stronghold. Not server mergers. Yuk!

Some of you are acting like this is a new thing that has never been done before in SWTOR. Weren't these issues addressed during the last merge?

They've done server merges before. In fact, I think they did it twice.

 

Some of you are acting like this is a new thing that has never been done before in SWTOR. Weren't these issues addressed during the last merge?

The issues were not addressed prior to the merges and that is why there is such a negative feeling towards them. There were quite a few people (not all but also not the tiny minority some believe it was either) that were negatively impacted. Guilds had to be completely broken down and reformed on the new server. At the time guildships and guild strongholds did not exist and guild banks had to be completely emptied as well before the merge. Anything left in them was lost. Guilds were dependent on customer service refunding all the costs of unlocking guild bank tabs (a tiny fraction of the cost of unlocking flagships or strongholds now). For some it happened quickly, for others it took a long time or never happened at all. The difficulties of transferring guild assets have increased exponentially since then. Also throw in costume designer (which also did not exist but you lose in a character transfer so its reasonable to assume you would lose it in a merger) and personal strongholds (which unlock fine if you did so with CCs but if you unlocked them with credits you have to pay all over again if you transfer the last character of your legacy to a new server).

All in all, mergers are a lot more complex now that they were the last time.

They've done server merges before. In fact, I think they did it twice.

 

Some of you are acting like this is a new thing that has never been done before in SWTOR. Weren't these issues addressed during the last merge?

No, these issues were not addressed in the previous two server merges.

In fact, many of the issues existing today did not even exist during the previous two merges.

Judging by the way the two previous merges were handled, with guilds being blown up, having to be reformed on the new servers, guild bank tabs being lost and having to deal with customer support to have those guild bank tabs restored (a process which took many guilds months, and some guilds were NEVER restored) and the loss of any items in those guild banks, there is no reason to believe another round of mergers would be handled any differently, or that the current existing issues would be addressed.

Merges of some sort will come and I have faith that Bioware will have all of the guilds, and strongholds + ships intact I think most people in this thread should listen to the Bad Feelings podcast we learnt some great info like they will never do X server so if you haven't had the chance to listen I suggest do it now. Bad Feeling Podcast #162 interviews Keith Kannig

People are already stretching and interpreting what was and was not said in that podcast. No surprise, but over the next couple of weeks.... the needless drama in the forum about the podcast will largely overshadow the podcast.

I agree with you though.. that it is worth the time to watch the podcast and pay attention to what is and is not said.

BUt....Keith made it clear in an earlier post in this thread this week ----> they are not ready to discuss with players yet on this.

Merges of some sort will come and I have faith that Bioware will have all of the guilds, and strongholds + ships intact I think most people in this thread should listen to the Bad Feelings podcast we learnt some great info like they will never do X server so if you haven't had the chance to listen I suggest do it now. Bad Feeling Podcast #162 interviews Keith Kannig

I listened to that podcast that you linked, although it may have led me to a different podcast than many of the advocates of server merges heard.

I heard nothing to indicate that server merges were imminent, or even definite. As is often the case, people tend to hear, or read, what they want to hear, or read.

Keith spoke about server populations and all the concerns that both sides have expressed. However, he spoke about those concerns in terms of the technical problems. My impression was that he was very careful to speak in terms of "IF" BW were to do something, they would like to do it in such a way that guilds and guild assets were able to transfer and personal assets such as legacy storage were also taken into account.

He also spoke about leaving the choice of server up to the individual player. If a player was happy where they were, let them stay there. If possible, though, make it more appealing, easier and less "costly" (in terms of guilds, guild and personal assets) to transfer. He did not say anything about lowering the cost of transfers, though.

Overall, though, I was pleased that Keith addressed many of the concerns held by both sides, and that BW seems to want to ensure that those concerns are addressed. I would be especially pleased if the solution that addresses those concerns leaves players the opportunity to remain on their current server or to keep their guild and personal assets if they choose to transfer.

Merges of some sort will come and I have faith that Bioware will have all of the guilds, and strongholds + ships intact I think most people in this thread should listen to the Bad Feelings podcast we learnt some great info like they will never do X server so if you haven't had the chance to listen I suggest do it now. Bad Feeling Podcast #162 interviews Keith Kannig

That discussion started around 25 minutes into it and I was glad Keith clarified some nebulous facts:

1. Cross Server cannot happen with the way the databases in the game are laid out

2. They now have High End Super servers that could easily consolidate existing servers

3. Keith plays on Harbinger & Red Eclipse prefers where the most people are?

4. Would never force anyone to move and would only suggest it if moving guildships/guilds is seamless

That discussion started around 25 minutes into it and I was glad Keith clarified some nebulous facts:

 

1. Cross Server cannot happen with the way the databases in the game are laid out

While unfortunate, it is clarification that this is not an option.

2. They now have High End Super servers that could easily consolidate existing servers

He did not, however, say that they WOULD be consolidating any, or all, existing servers.

3. Keith plays on Harbinger & Red Eclipse prefers where the most people are?

Some people do prefer to play on higher populated servers. Not everyone does, though.

4. Would never force anyone to move and would only suggest it if moving guildships/guilds is seamless

This is, IMO, the most important point--never forcing anyone to move. That would seem to rule out server merges, IMO.

He did talk about possibly making it more appealing to move, but ONLY IF guilds (as well as guild and personal assets) could be transferred intact. Those personal assets include legacy storage vaults and the potential for multiple legacy storage vaults across multiple servers to have to be taken into consideration.

People are already stretching and interpreting what was and was not said in that podcast. No surprise, but over the next couple of weeks.... the needless drama in the forum about the podcast will largely overshadow the podcast.

I find myself in a weird position by agreeing with you.. it doesn't happen often.. 😊

1) Obviously they would have to work out issues with strongholds and guild ships and inventory of all sorts.

They simply can not realistically expect to merge anything if players on the merging servers are going to be losing those things.

2) Names are the other biggie. People like their names. They named their characters what they named them for a reason.

Being able to add a surname is a helper here, but I noticed after legacy names stopped being unique that other characters had "my" legacy name.

So it's not much of a leap to think that at least some people have the same name and I do not mean just the "first" name.

Now in my perfect world I wanted legacy names to be unique and "character" names to be open... This was prior to launch that I posted that thought.

Might not have allowed for you to be Duke Dogwalker because someone else may have beaten you to the Dogwalker legacy, but you could have been Duke, at least, and since that is the name everyone sees and most people use, I would have thought that that was more important.

When they added the ability to put in a "last name" for your character, it really opened things up, but when you start talking about everyone on every server? I am not going to bet against at least some duplication.

So how do you handle it? Date of character creation seems fairest, right?

Thing is, I have on more than one occasion deleted a character, sometimes quite an old character, using a certain name to reroll a new toon with that same name.

So on the server I spend most of my time, certain names have been "mine" since pretty much launch, and to discover that I would now lose that name because I wanted to replay some class story and just decided to start fresh?

That would be a very bitter pill to swallow. If I wanted to use some special character then I would have used it to begin with, no?

So you establish which 1 or 2 servers is the "destination" server and the people on those servers get to keep their names no matter what? Not exactly incentive to move, right? The likelihood that you will lose your character name?

And I know it's nothing that this thread is supposed to fix, but having that surname in lower case really bothers me.

I used it a couple of times, but that is an obstacle to me.

I do not want to be Duke dogwalker. It's my last name. It should be Duke Dogwalker.

I'm just mentioning this because it adds to the name crunch; I am saying that for me (and possibly others), if I lose the name "Duke" then being able to (possibly) rename my character "Duke dogwalker" is not an entirely acceptable substitute.

3) Make them an offer they can't refuse.

Everyone that loses their name gets some goodies.

A free name change token, of course, but more than that... Cartel coins, cartel packs, some specific cartel item or another, maybe even exclusive items like a special pet of some sort or a custom GSF paint job.

This would only apply to characters made before a certain date, of course (namely the date that it was announced that they would be paying restitution to a player that lost a name).

I just think that it's a way to take some of the sting out of losing a name. Okay, I can no longer be Duke, but I got 500 CCs, a supercrate of the latest cartel pack, and an exclusive "N4-M3" droid non-combat pet (for everyone in the legacy if not the entire account) for my loss.

But the question would still remain as to how exactly they would decide which characters would lose their names.

So, once again, it's just "I want a merger and some of you will lose your name, so just suck it up" only this time you've thrown in a "Have a free money-off coupon for your trouble." {That'll fix it}

Never mind that you completely ignored a few other gripes, like people not wanting to lose their community, or being lumped onto a server with all the trolls and griefers.

Here's a suggestion - everyone who wants these server merges gets put onto a new server, completely reset - no gear, back at level 1 (actual level and command level), etc - and has to start from scratch. You get what you want but lose a big part of what keeps you playing the game.

Does that sound fair to you? Would you keep playing the game?

People, people, listen. If Bioware does commit to doing a Server Merge let alone creating superservers or megaservers, it won't be an endeavour they thought lightly about. Especially with the feedback in this thread it is becoming obvious that if such a thing is to be done, it will have to be done with the highest possible care. They will have to devise systems where players don't lose every achievement from before, where they don't lose strongholds, guilds and guild assets. They will have to find ways to work around or work with duplicate names. But know that the Devs won't simply go "alright, server merge! Rest of the problems you deal with yourself". Don't immediately assume you're going to lose everything, have some patience, wait for the Devs to be ready to talk about this and kindly express your concerns so that Bioware will be reminded of them.

Personally I am very much for a server merge. Look at some of the European servers, the Progenitor is so incredibly empty and don't get me started on that other English server in EU. 9 EU servers is overkill and unneeded, 3 would be enough, one English, one French and on German. Or just one European megaserver, there are enough other languages like Polish, Russian, Italian and Spanish who also play the game but don't have their seperate servers. A European megaserver would definitely solve a lot of player activity issues if not be the salvation we need but some don't see or want to see we need.

This is, IMO, the most important point--never forcing anyone to move. That would seem to rule out server merges, IMO.

Trying to 'help' PvP'ers by forcing non-PvP'ers onto one mega 'Toxic Central' server will do nothing to increase the number of players that participate in PvP.

Why is there no thriving PvP server, comparable to a RP server like Ebon Hawk? It should be clear by now that PvP will never be 'big' in SWTOR. Anything that's labeled 'PvP' in this game dies.

Players choose to roll toons on a RP server for a reason and their fifteen bucks is worth as much as fifteen bucks from PvP'ers. We can only hope BW will leave players the freedom to choose a type of server, when/if they reduce the number of servers.

I agree, although I think the dead PvP servers could be merged, if that's what the PvP crowd wants.

 

Trying to 'help' PvP'ers by forcing non-PvP'ers onto one mega 'Toxic Central' server will do nothing to increase the number of players that participate in PvP.

 

Why is there no thriving PvP server, comparable to a RP server like Ebon Hawk? It should be clear by now that PvP will never be 'big' in SWTOR. Anything that's labeled 'PvP' in this game dies.

 

Players choose to roll toons on a RP server for a reason and their fifteen bucks is worth as much as fifteen bucks from PvP'ers. We can only hope BW will leave players the freedom to choose a type of server, when/if they reduce the number of servers.

There is a thriving PvP community on SWTOR which leaves me kind of confused that you'd say it's dead. Maybe it is not so active on your server but in the Red Eclipse there are entire guilds dedicated to PvP still. So it's anything but dead, yeah there are some parts of it that are toxic, sure, but there are enough friendly guilds that PvP to have a fun time with fellow SWTOR players.

And I understand you can't force anyone to move but not wanting to budge is kind of not beneficial to the rest of the community. There are a lot of players, including SWTOR Influencers (

Harbinger's apparently having issues and down... again so realize that turning Harbinger into a mega server is a really, really bad idea- it turned an EV HM run into a complete weird lag fest where the fact we kept the damned run going is a testament to how well our progression team is coming together. (Thank god it wasn't one of the other HM Ops).

It never made much sense, to me why people want other servers to merge with Harby, when it is so unstable. Wouldn't it be, at least a little better if servers were merged into EH?

There is a thriving PvP community on SWTOR which leaves me kind of confused that you'd say it's dead. Maybe it is not so active on your server but in the Red Eclipse there are entire guilds dedicated to PvP still. So it's anything but dead, yeah there are some parts of it that are toxic, sure, but there are enough friendly guilds that PvP to have a fun time with fellow SWTOR players.

Absolutely, on healthier servers and back in the day PVP guilds were an essential part of the ecosystem with their counterparts being NIM raiding guilds. Shadowlands had an assortment of them at different skill levels. It actually made pvp more fun. GSF has players who name themselves with usually a 3 letter acronym to denote their squad/clan. I recall hearing stories of people on all pvp servers trying to do basic things like kill a simple world boss and how they had to set up a whole separate group to fend off the player attackers, tedium.

And I understand you can't force anyone to move but not wanting to budge is kind of not beneficial to the rest of the community. There are a lot of players, including SWTOR Influencers, who believe that server merges or even megaservers are the key to the game's future and survival.

The server division as it is now is choking the life out of the game. You can move to more populated servers yeah but how long will that solution work? It is a temporary solution and in the long term server merges or megaservers will breathe new life into the game. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made, I know it's hard and not fun but I am convinced Bioware will do everything they can to have potential server merges to go smooth and with the least amount of damage.

There is a thriving PvP community on SWTOR which leaves me kind of confused that you'd say it's dead. Maybe it is not so active on your server but in the Red Eclipse there are entire guilds dedicated to PvP still. So it's anything but dead, yeah there are some parts of it that are toxic, sure, but there are enough friendly guilds that PvP to have a fun time with fellow SWTOR players.

 

And I understand you can't force anyone to move but not wanting to budge is kind of not beneficial to the rest of the community. There are a lot of players, including SWTOR Influencers (

), who believe that server merges or even megaservers are the key to the game's future and survival. The server division as it is now is choking the life out of the game. You can move to more populated servers yeah but how long will that solution work? It is a temporary solution and in the long term server merges or megaservers will breathe new life into the game. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made, I know it's hard and not fun but I am convinced Bioware will do everything they can to have potential server merges to go smooth and with the least amount of damage.

From the popcast it does seem to indicate if someone doesn't want to move, they are not going to force them. So are you going to say that they should force them when they stated themselves they should not be force. And some servers people have no desire to move to. I know I love Ebon Hawk and would never chose to move to Harbinger so you would force me to leave a nice community of people for a community known for its toxic behavior?

There is a thriving PvP community on SWTOR which leaves me kind of confused that you'd say it's dead. Maybe it is not so active on your server but in the Red Eclipse there are entire guilds dedicated to PvP still. So it's anything but dead, yeah there are some parts of it that are toxic, sure, but there are enough friendly guilds that PvP to have a fun time with fellow SWTOR players.

So, PvP'ers have actually no reason to ask for a server merge?

Anyway, TRE is a PvE server. The PvP crowd on its own can not sustain a server. Even if it were possible for BW to get all frequent PvP'ers (guilds and all) on one new server, that server would die in zero seconds flat. With 'dead' PvP I meant servers like Pot5, Bastion, Jung Ma and so on. Those could be merged and I can also imagine merging same-type servers, like Jedi Covenant and Shadowlands (both PvE).

There are a lot of players, including SWTOR Influencers (

), who believe that server merges or even megaservers are the key to the game's future and survival.

Just opinions with which I beg to differ. A part of the player base is very group oriented, some like PvP, some like RP, others are casual/solo players, etc. Right now all these different types of players can choose a server that most fits their play style. It would be unwise to take this choice away from players, it would kill the game, IMO. Yes, they could reduce the total number of servers, but allow players to choose a type of server.

Sometimes sacrifices have to be made, I know it's hard and not fun but I am convinced Bioware will do everything they can to have potential server merges to go smooth and with the least amount of damage.

Personally I am not willing to make any sacrifice (when 'sacrifice' means losing RP servers) to accomodate PvP'ers and/or raiders. That's not what I'm paying for

RP'ers are comparatively 'low maintenance' and do not require BW to invest a lot of time and money in development. Let RP'ers keep their own servers, which also provide a great environment for solo players.

Unfortunately it seems that many PvP'ers/raiders feel that RP servers should disappear. But don't be fooled: the future/survival of the game as a whole is a secondary interest to them at best. Primarily they just want fodder for their playstyle. Even if this affects other subscribers, who never participate in PvP and/or group content, negatively.

It never made much sense, to me why people want other servers to merge with Harby, when it is so unstable. Wouldn't it be, at least a little better if servers were merged into EH?

I didn't listen to the podcast, so I am not up on any plans they may have talked about, but would the plan be for a single server for all of North America?

I am getting that vibe, but I could see where they may want to keep up one for each coast.

No idea what they might do with Europe, with it's servers divided by language, unless they can add a language option for the player to select.

So, once again, it's just "I want a merger and some of you will lose your name, so just suck it up" only this time you've thrown in a "Have a free money-off coupon for your trouble." {That'll fix it}

 

Never mind that you completely ignored a few other gripes, like people not wanting to lose their community, or being lumped onto a server with all the trolls and griefers.

 

Here's a suggestion - everyone who wants these server merges gets put onto a new server, completely reset - no gear, back at level 1 (actual level and command level), etc - and has to start from scratch. You get what you want but lose a big part of what keeps you playing the game.

 

Does that sound fair to you? Would you keep playing the game?

I do not "want" a server merger. It's just something that I see as an inevitability.

They may well not have any plans to "force" people to move, but if enough people do move, well, at what point does it stop making sense to keep those old servers running?

It's damned if you do, damned if you don't for both the players and Bioware at this point.

Bioware sees mega-servers as the best path forward in order to keep the game healthy, but some players are not going to be happy about merging, and some may seem happy but might change their tune if they lose their name.

For the players, if they do introduce such a thing, they may not have to transfer and so they and their friends can keep their names and stay put, but eventually the other servers will almost certainly be shut down and then they will be late to the party and the chances of losing any name go way up.

Ironically, their best hope might be that Bioware merge the smaller servers into a single server to support the low population of hangers-on.

While I will agree that RPers are the most stable crowd long-term, they are not the only crowd, and hardcore PvPers and raiders are almost certainly subscribers in order to have unlimited access.

Never mind the abundance of "just players" that are out there that don't fit neatly into some single category.

And yeah, losing a name sucks, but losing a name and getting nothing for the trouble sucks substantially more than losing a name but getting some sort of award as payment for "damages".

However, losing a name does not at all compare to being thrown on to an all-new server with nothing but starter gear.

Losing a name is losing a name. It's not taking away your legacy achievements or credits or levels or gear or anything else.

Trying to draw that comparison is silly.

And this is coming from someone that lost names in the great server merges much earlier in the game's history.

So here's how I figure it....

1) Set up the mega-server live date at least two weeks, preferably a month in advance.

2) Put a "pre-transfer" option on the character screen. Everyone that selects this would be a day 1 transfer to the mega-server (can we call it Starforge?).

3) Of course make a page here with all of the important info. What is the mega-server, when is it going live, what are the benefits of pre-transferring? What happens if I lose my character name? All the good stuff.

4) Send e-mails to all of the players that are signed up for them telling them about the mega-server, the pre-transfer option, and a lnk to the info page.

5) When the time comes and the mega-server goes live, everyone that pre-registered for transfer is moved over and the sorting begins.

6) Names are awarded with subscribers > preferred, preferred > F2P. After that it would be based on the date that the characters were created with the oldest getting to keep the name.

The only caveat I might add is that there may be a minimum level. 10 for subs, 20 for the rest or something like that... If there is some long-forgotten level 1 character created as a name-holder on some server they should not be given priority over a character that has been actively played.

7) The best-case scenario might be if they could develop a system to let people opt-out of seniority, basically surrendering any claim that they have on their character name and automatically being forced to rename the character.

Yes, if everyone that shared the name in question chose this option then it would be possible for the first person to log in to reclaim that same name that they had, but if any one of the other players cared that much then they wouldn't have surrendered the name themselves.

8) As far as compensation goes, I think that it has to be based on the account, not per character.

Any character that has their name taken or any qualifying character that has surrendered their name means that the player gets compensated.

=============

What does anyone think would be reasonable compensation?

I want things that would help take the sting away, but they can't just give everyone the store because a lot of players would likely be affected... Heck, some people would surrender the name on some old character that they do not play any more and that would guarantee the reward.

N4-M3 would be simple, and keeping with the tradition of "leetspeak" named droid pets like those given away for May 4th.

Beyond that, though, I am just thinking name change tokens (in case you think of a better name later) and cartel coins to buy whatever else you wanted.

I said something about a supercrate earlier, but that might be too much. Maybe one of every pack currently on the market?

Maybe a pet droid, 2 name change tokens, 500 cartel coins, and then 1 random cartel pack per affected character up to some maximum amount?

Bioware sees mega-servers as the best path forward in order to keep the game healthy

Source?

However, losing a name does not at all compare to being thrown on to an all-new server with nothing but starter gear.

Apart from the fact that you've once again ignored all the other reasons for not wanting mergers, losing a name for a character you've RP'd with for 6 years is going to be enough for a lot of people to leave. The other reasons, such as taking away the community and forcing us to play with trolls and griefers, will cause a lot more people to leave. Losing everything we like about this game will cause us to leave. So, to make a comparison, I hinted it's similar to you losing your precious command level, and, funnily enough, it got this big "that wouldn't be fair" rant. Taking away all your gear would be the same as taking away our community, guilds, names etc.

Maybe a pet droid, 2 name change tokens, 500 cartel coins, and then 1 random cartel pack per affected character up to some maximum amount?

"Here, have a pet droid (that you've already got 15 of) to make up for having your entire game spoiled." That'd be like getting a money off coupon for a Snickers when I'm allergic to peanuts.

My interpretation of the podcast was that they have the technical capability to do mega-servers but there is no plan to do that in the near future. Mergers would be contingent on being able to transfer guilds and their assets intact. They are also reticent about forcibly moving players (ie forced mergers) and are in favor of making it easier for people to move to a new server (guild transfers accommodated) in a "voluntary merger".

There are also the recent server stability issues to work out before a merger would even be feasible.

Mithros;9341836

 

Maybe a pet droid, 2 name change tokens, 500 cartel coins, and then 1 random cartel pack per affected character up to some maximum amount?

A pet droid? Please I have a ton of those things, why in the world would I want another, random cartel pack--full of armor I don't want, nope.